Senior Software Engineer

Senior Software Engineer - GCP Developer - Equity Partner - Location: Remote (United States/Canada) Commitment: Minimum 20 hrs/week Anime Universe is an early stage startup in the building and fundraising phase. Compensation: No upfront cash "Sweat Equity": Equity (shares) + future token-based rewards (pending legal clearance) Salary unlocked by revenue milestones Remote-first, async-native, autonomy-rich team What You Put In Is What You Get Out At Anime Universe, infrastructure is not a support function—it's a core enabler of the product itself. As a Senior Software Engineer (GCP-focused), you will design and build the applications, systems, and services that power an intelligent, scalable creative platform. Why This Role Matters This is a software engineering role at its core. You'll architect and implement cloud-native services, data-driven features, and scalable backend systems that bring our creative universe to life. You will: Build application logic, APIs, and services that run on GCP. Shape the foundational architecture that supports real-time creativity, analytics, and future AI systems. Partner closely with product, data, and AI teams to turn ideas into production-ready software. Your work is the backbone of how we deliver magic to users. What You'll Do Build Cloud-Native Applications Develop microservices, APIs, backend components, and data-intensive features using GCP-native compute options like Cloud Run, GKE, and Cloud Functions. Write clean, scalable software using Python (or another backend language), with strong emphasis on modularity, maintainability, and performance. Design & Implement GCP-Based Architectures Architect services using Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Pub/Sub, Firestore, Cloud SQL, and VPC networking. Make key decisions around system design, data modeling, and service boundaries. Develop Data-Driven Features Build application logic that consumes real-time and batch data pipelines. Integrate with BigQuery, Dataflow, and Pub/Sub to power analytics, personalization, and content systems. Build for Scale, Reliability & Developer Velocity Use CI/CD and IaC (Cloud Build, Terraform) to support the software you write—without being a dedicated DevOps engineer. Prioritize automation that supports fast iteration and high service quality. Collaborate Across the Product Work with architects, designers, and AI engineers to ship product features end-to-end. Help define best practices for cloud-native software development internally. (Bonus) AI/ML Enablement Integrate applications with Vertex AI components or internal ML systems. Experience with LangChain or generative AI is helpful but not required. What You Bring Software Engineering First 4+ years of professional software development experience Strong expertise with Python (or equivalent backend languages), distributed systems, and API development Experience developing production services on Google Cloud Platform Deep GCP Knowledge (but applied through software engineering) Proficiency with: Cloud Run / GKE BigQuery, Dataflow, Pub/Sub Cloud SQL / Firestore IAM, VPC networking Experience designing scalable cloud architectures Strong familiarity with containerization and CI/CD workflows (Docker, Cloud Build, GitHub Actions) Other Strengths Solid understanding of cloud security, monitoring, and performance tuning Terraform experience (for managing the resources your services rely on) Cloud certifications (Professional Cloud Architect/Developer/Data Engineer) are a plus A builder's mindset—practical, iterative, and product-focused Success Metrics Production-ready services delivered quickly and reliably Well-architected systems that scale with usage Fast deployment cycles and high engineering throughput Efficient, cost-conscious use of GCP resources New features (data-driven or AI-driven) enabled through your architectures Compensation & Culture Equity: Role-based equity package Token Rewards: Potential based on contribution and compliance clearance Salary: Equity-first; salary unlocks via company revenue milestones Culture: Remote-first, async-native, and high-trust engineering environment